Former NFL player Ben Utecht suffered five documented concussions during his time as a professional athlete and still hasn't fully recovered. That's why he recently turned to music in order to express his love to his wife and children and raise awareness for brain disease.

YouTube screenshot

Summary

Former NFL player Ben Utecht suffered five documented concussions during his time as a professional athlete and still hasn't fully recovered. That's why he turned to music to express his love for his wife and children.

Former NFL player Ben Utecht suffered five documented concussions during his time as a professional athlete and still hasn't fully recovered.

That's why he recently turned to music to express his love for his wife and children and raise awareness for brain disease.

"When you go through things like that, you step back and go, 'Man, I sure wish I would have known more about this at the beginning of my career,'" Utecht said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Utecht isn't alone in this struggle. Many other NFL players have filed a law suit against the NFL over such health problems. But rather than drawing attention to legal actions, Utecht has turned to his music to raise awareness for brain disease.

Since his career as a professional athlete ended in 2009, Utecht began another career as a singer/songwriter. Last week Utecht released a music video titled "You Will Always Be My Girls."

The video description clarifies the meaning behind the personal video.

"Super Bowl Champion Ben Utecht writes a love letter to his wife and girls from the perspective of the aging football player who may not remember their names and faces one day due to brain disease from concussions. This video symbolizes the importance to fund research to find the cures for brain disease."

The video was published on YouTube where many commenters expressed their sympathy for Utecht and appreciation for his music: "I don't believe he could have conveyed his love and conviction for his family any better than this," Wendy Roithner wrote.

"I hope that we will hear more works from him in the future. The story is very sad. I do hope that Ben's work to help people with brain diseases finds success."

Cagney Randolph wrote: "Just plain awesome song. As a husband and father of a daughter, I can't really listen to this song without getting a little watery-eyed."

Popular Comments

Every athlete should wach this video and read this article! You may think this
will never happen to you. This man is only 33! What a treasure for his wife and
kids that we wrote and sang this song. It was beautiful!!!

2:49 p.m. July 1, 2014

Top comment

2020

Herriman, UT

There are a lot of former football players with these issues. It is too many.
However, they are also still a huge minority of former players. The numbers of
players with these conditions will also decrease immensely from what you are
seeing
More..

4:29 p.m. July 1, 2014

Top comment

Capsaicin

Salt Lake City, UT

I seriously don't understand how a player could say, "I had no idea
what I was getting myself into." What a load of lies. Its about time for BYU
to drop their football program and all inter-collegiate competitive sports all
together.
More..

Sarah Sanders Petersen writes for the Faith and Family sections on DeseretNews.com. Sarah received a bachelors degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism and a minor in editing from Brigham Young University. more ..